One Last Ride
by gillyandersons
Summary: Based on a Tumblr post I made: Imagine 80 year old Mulder breaking himself and Scully out of the nursing home, stealing the bitchy nurses car and taking Scully to Area 51 to look for aliens one last time.


**This started off as a little prompt thing I wrote on Tumblr, and people seemed to like it and then it kind of spawned this fic. Its going to be a two shot and i'm gonna upload the second half really soon. I hope you like it and I didn't ruin the illusion too badly... Please let me know what you think! Thank you, Gina xxx**

**_Imagine 80 year old Mulder breaking himself and Scully out of the nursing home, stealing the bitchy nurses car and taking Scully to Area 51 to look for aliens one last time._**

Mulder sat in the plush deep green armchair, absentmindedly staring out of the window. The sight before him was dull and dreary, the outside world still gray and bleak from the early morning. The glass from the window was covered in a thin layer of moisture as the heat coming from the elderly mans bedroom caused the frost on the other side to melt.

Just from the weather alone, Mulder could tell it was going to be a bad day. Although, was that really any different to the rest of his days? He had lost count of how long he and Scully had been there in that home. Time seemed relative now, like one giant blur. It wasn't a life he was living anymore, not really.

It was hard to really enjoy life when you were stuck in a home and you were too old and too God damn helpless to look after your wife. Not that Scully even remembers who you are anymore... But still.

Scully got ill around 7 years ago now. Alzheimer's. The diagnosis was one we doctors had continually missed for years. It took her burning their kitchen down trying to make toast for the doctors to believe something was seriously wrong.

Some sorted sick joke, huh? A sick and twisted turn of fate. If anybody should lose their marbles, shouldn't it be Mulder? Not the ever skeptical Scully? Mulder had looked after his quickly deteriorating wife for several years before William, who had searched them out when he was 18, put them both in a home.

It was both a blessing and a curse. Mulder needed all the help he could get, but the care home seemed to make Scully loose herself even quicker. At least when it was the two of them in their marital home, Scully had things to remind her who she was.

But now she had no idea who Mulder was. Of course, she remembered _him_, but she didn't know Mulder was _Mulder_. Her face would light up whenever he was around, but her eyes always seemed to be vacant. A vast contrast to the warm, living sea blue they once were.

When they first got to the care home, they shared a bedroom but as Scully got worse, she was prone to getting up in the night and wandering off. She even woke up screaming some nights, terrified of her own husband. So now, for her own safety, she slept on her own in the opposite side of the home where she could have night nurses watching her.

Scully's lucid moments had been becoming shorter and longer apart. It had been so long since her last one that Mulder wasn't sure if she would ever have one again. Again, if that was a blessing or a curse, Mulder didn't know.

He just took a small comfort in the fact that she seemed happy. She was blissfully unaware of who he was, who William, Shannon(Williams wife) or any of the 5 grandkids were. She had no recollection of all the pain she had been through because of him and the x-files. He would tell we every single day, but his words fell on deaf ears. Sometimes Scully would get a twinkle of recollection in her eyes, but the sparkle was gone almost as fast as it has appeared.

He wished it were he who was ill. It was almost unbearable now. Scully was there but she wasn't. Not really. It was like all the Scully had been scooped out and left her a vacant, hollow shell of the woman she once was. The Scully he loved was gone, most probably forever. He at least had his memories, fresh as ever. He could remember every second of their lives together. From the minute she walked through the basement door, all fresh faced and wearing a suit that buried her, right up until the last lucid moment she had, where she smiled and kissed him before falling asleep in his arms.

But really, life wasn't worth living without Scully. Sure, he still had William and Shannon and all the grandchildren, but they lived out in LA and Will didn't visit much anymore out of guilt. Well that and the fact it broke his heart his mother didn't remember him. He phoned several times a week, often Skyped with the family, but it wasn't the same.

Mulder had felt loneliness before, he felt it until the day he met Scully. But that paled in comparison to the loneliness he felt now. At least before, he hadn't known what life with Scully was like. How happy he could be and how immensely he could love. How immensely he could be loved back.

He gazed down at his wrinkled miscoloured hand, his golden wedding band now almost too big for his skinny, frail fingers. God, had he worked hard to get that! He had proposed four times before Scully finally relented, caved in and said yes. It was her 50th Birthday and he had taken her to Paris as a surprise. Maggie, God bless her, had passed a few moths prior and Scully was taking it hard. But Mulder had gone through the motions. He had taken her to the top of the Eiffel Tower, where the roof closed for just the two of them and was covered in rose petals (it had cost a bomb, but it had been worth it). A single table with candles in the middle sat beside a string quartet that played all of her favourite songs. Mulder was so nervous he almost dropped the bloody ring from the edge, but luckily for him, he won that round.

He heard a nurse knock on his door and tell him breakfast was ready. He didn't really feel like breakfast today, his memories of the past heavy on his heart. But it was pancake day, and when did Mulder ever turn down pancakes? Never.

With a lot of effort, Mulder pushed himself from his chair and slowly padded out of the room, ignoring the aches of protest emanating from his stiff joints.

On his way out of the dimly lit bedroom, his eyes landed on a photograph he hadn't seen in forever. Will had sent a whole bunch of stuff to them the other day, and Mulder assumed one of the nurses must have put it there.

With a trembling hand, Mulder reached out for the frame. His thumb ghosted over the glass as he remembered the photo as clear as day. He looked down upon it and smiled. The photograph was of Scully, Monica, Doggett and himself on John and Monica's wedding day. Phoenix, John and Monica's eldest, who was coming up 13 at the time had taken it. It had been even harder for John to get Monica to marry him. Three kids and several failed attempts later, Monica agreed so Doggett wouldn't keep asking her. They all looked so happy there. They were all in their mid to late fifties, granted, but they all still seemed to have a air of youthfulness about them. Doggett looked three sheets to the wind(he passed out on Monica's marine big brother 20 minutes later), Monica looked pissed but was smiling anyway and himself and Scully looked just as drunk as Doggett. Thank you open bar! He tucked the photo into his pants and continued on his way to breakfast. He may be 80, but he would still fight Fat Freddie and Big Ass Bertha for the last remaining pancakes.

He took his usual double order and made his way to where Scully was sitting, placing a plate down in front of her. She turned to face him and smiled politely in thanks. He poured her a cup of tea from the pot in the centre of the table as she pushed the pancake around her plate.

"Good morning, my love" Mulder smiled sweetly but Scully had that same vacant look in her eye. Mulder wondered if she could even see him, because most of the time it just seemed like she looked through him, rather than at him.

"You want some honey?" He asked but Scully just shook her head. "Didn't think so" Mulder shrugged as he began to tuck into his breakfast as though he was a four year old again. That's one thing Mulder had learnt over the past few years in the home, if you didn't eat quick, you didn't eat. Big Ass Bertha, as the residents had so aptly named her, would eat all food in sight. Also, one hell of a bitch! How she ever got into the nursing profession was beyond Mulder!

He heard a sound beside him that he hadn't heard in years. A giggle. An actual Scully giggle.

"You've got honey in your moustache"

Mulder smiled and quickly went to wipe it before his eyes bulged and his blood went cold. Scully spoke to him. Actually spoke. She didn't just stare vacantly or smile. She _spoke_.

"Scul-"

"-I know they're your favourites, Mulder but you've got to slow down. You will make yourself sick!"

Words. _Real_ words.

Wait. She knew who he was off the bat. Was he dead? Asleep? Maybe he himself was finally going loopy! It had to be one if those things, right? Scully couldn't be lucid... Maybe Tommy's nephew had brought him some of those special brownies again and Tommy had shared them around.

"Why are you looking at me like that, Mulder?" Scully asked, blushing under her husbands intense gaze.

"L-like what?" Mulder stuttered, at a loss for words. Was this really happening? "I'm not looking at you any way"

"Yes you are! You're looking at me like you've seen a ghost!"

Seen a ghost alright! Mulder thought, all thoughts of his pancake long gone. He didn't believe it. He _couldn't_.

Wait a minute, the photo!

Mulder fished the now slightly crumpled photo from his pocket and gingerly handed it to Scully.

"Do you remember these people? That day?" He asked desperately, clawing at that single tiny sliver of hope that was still inside him.

"Of course I do!" Scully said with a roll of her eyes, now looking at Mulder the way she used to every time he suggested it was aliens or a Mexican blood sucking goat. "That's you and I, _obviously_, and that's John and Monica" Scully pointed to them each individually. "Phoenix took this photo. Monica was in a huff with John because he was plastered on their wedding day, John had just thrown up on his 97 year old Aunt Bea and you and I had just finished off that third bottle of wine because, well, it was a free bar"

Mulder couldn't believe his ears. Scully seemed more lucid than ever. He didn't know whether to laugh, cry or run around in an insanely happy daze. Maybe all three at the same time?

"You're... Jesus, Scully! You're lucid!" Mulder laughed as tears welled up in his ageing eyes.

"Lucid?" Scully asked, her wrinkled, but as beautiful as ever face, contorted into a confused frown. "What do you mean, Mulder?"

Mulder audibly gulped. In the early days when this would happen, Scully would hit either end of a drastic spectrum in how she would react to finding out she had Alzheimer's. He had finally figured out how to control himself when these moments happened, but right now he was just too shocked and happy that he had forgotten all about steeling himself around her. He didn't want to break her heart, not when she was so happy right now, and unaware of her condition. After all, ignorance is bliss. Especially in Scully's case. But he couldn't lie to her, not when she already knew too much.

"Mulder, what?" Scully asked again, pulling Mulder from his internal battle. This time her voice wavered in fear of what Mulder would tell her.

"You've got Alzheimer's, Scully" Mulder sighed, deciding to rip off the band aid for the both of them, rather than tiptoeing around the subject for a few awkard moments.

"Oh" Scully's face fell. "I-I do?" She asked after swallowing thickly "how bad?" She asked again as Mulder sadly nodded his head. "Actually, never mind. Judging by your reaction and the fact I was none the wiser, I'm guessing it's pretty bad" another sad nod. "And I haven't been lucid in a long time?"

Mulder shook his head, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. He licked his dry, cracked lips before he spoke.

"9 months and 27 days"

Scully's heart broke, not for herself, but for Mulder. He looked broken. He seemed more terrified right now than he did happy, probably due to the fact he had no idea how long she would stay like this. Terrified of having his heart broken once again when she suddenly forgot.

"I'm so sorry, Fox" Scully squeaked, tears sprigging from her eyes and rolling down her wrinkled cheek as as reached across for his hand.

What else could she say? What could anybody say in a situation like this?

"Dana!" Mulder cried before he broke down completley, pulling her in for their first kiss in almost a year before he sobbed against Scully's chest.

Scully cradled Mulder in her arms, both of them sobbing and clinging to the other for dear life. Terrified that once they let go Scully would forget. That it would all be a dream. She could feel hundreds of eyes boring into her, but she ignored it. The nurses stayed away, as did the rest of the people in the room. They were all familiar with the situation, and each and every one of them knew how precious these small moments of lucidity were.

Holding a broken Mulder like this as he sobbed hard against her brought back a painful memory of her doing the exact same thing in his apartment after Teena passed. Her fingers spread out in his gray hair, the way they had done every time she kissed him or simply held him.

She could feel Mulder's tears soaking trough her thick, woolen cardigan and dress, but she didn't care. Neither wanted to move from the moment they were now in, _ever._

She laced her arthritis ridden fingers through Mulder's before pulling him to stand up with her. He looked like a child right in that moment, so happy and yet terrified.

"It's okay" Scully whispered, cupping Mulder's face before bringing him in for another kiss. She didn't know who she was trying to convince: Mulder or herself. Because it _wasn't_ going to be okay, they both knew that.

She once again laced their hands together before she pulled him from the dining room, not without a few whoops from horny old men. She couldn't help but chuckle at that.

Mulder gripped her frail hand like a vice, too afraid to let go lest she slip away again. Their grip on one another would probably leave them bruised for weeks, but that was the last of their concerns right now.

"I love you, Mulder" Scully whispered as she lead him to her bedroom. "So much"

"I love you too, Scully!"

They sat down on her bed and Mulder was pleased that it was comfortable, if he couldn't hold her every night at least she wasn't in some awful room.

"It's okay to be scared, Mulder" Scully said as she stroked his knuckles with her thumb. He could feel his hand trembling and his pulse racing, and not just down to his old age! "I'm scared too, _terrified_ even. But we can't think of that. We just need to live in the moment and savour every precious moment I have left"

"I agree" Mulder sniffled, pecking Scully on the cheek and reveling in the way she lent into his touch. "But first, there's something you need to do" he fished the giant cell phone with massive buttons from his back pocket. "William" Scully nodded, knowing this was probably the last time she would ever get to speak to him. To say goodbye to the son she had lost, found and then lost all over again.

Mulder sat silently as Scully spoke to their son and grandchildren over the phone. He held her hand the whole time, often chuckling at something she or one of the kids said. He could hear the emotion William was trying so desperately trying to hide. He could tell the boy was crying and Shannon was comforting him, also trying to keep the overwhelming emotion from her tone. She and Scully had been incredibly close. Shannon was like the daughter Scully never had and she was just as upset and heartbroken as William when Scully got ill.

It was nice, seeing the old Scully. Her face lit up as she spoke animatedly to Mia, their youngest granddaughter(who was thankfully too young to know what was happening). Every so often, he would bring their joined hands to his lips and kiss her knuckles, not wasting a single moment of Scully.

It had been so long since he had touched her or kissed her and he forgot how beautiful it felt. How her skin felt against his own. How her tiny hands fit perfectly with his, like God himself had designed them as two halves of one whole. Because that's what they we're really, two halves of a whole. Mulder didn't have faith like Scully did, but he did believe that they were created for one another. That they were soul mates. They were different, but she completed him and he completed her.

They spoke to William and the rest of the family for over an hour before finally saying goodbye. Scully broke down completely, as did William and Shannon. Scully told him how happy he had made them and how special he was. That she was proud of him each and every day, whether or not she knew it. She made him promise to look after Mulder and to visit him more, because if she couldn't then somebody had to keep him in check. She sobbed with all her might once they hung up and William told her he loved her, that he always had and always would. Mulder had pulled her into his arms and held her as heartbroken sobs racked her body. They lay down on her bed in each other's arms for longer than they realised.

It was a familiar moment. One very much similar to what they shared in a motel room all those years ago. So much had changed since then but the way Mulder's embrace felt hadn't. The way she felt safe and loved hadn't. The way his fingers traced invisible patterns on the curve of her hip and back hadn't. The way he kissed her forehead softly hadn't. The way her hair tickled his nose hadn't.

"Mulder, if this is my last day as _me_ then I don't want to spend it locked up in here" Scully spoke. "I want us to spend it together, doing things we used to do. Mulder, I want to _live_"

Mulder knew how she felt. He too wanted to live, and not just survive like he had been doing. There was no way in hell he was going to waste whatever time he had left with Scully. Sure, he would happily just lay there with her in his arms until she forgot, but as long as he was with her, he didn't care what they were doing or where they were.

Nothing had changed there then.

"Meet me out front in fifteen minutes" Mulder said suddenly, kissing Scully on the top of her head before putting a plan into motion.

**xxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Psssst, Irving!" Mulder shout-whispered. "Irving!" Mulder said a little louder. Damn the man and his deafness, Mulder though before he pulled a mint from his pocket and threw it at the mans head. "_Irving!_"

The elderly man turned around with a scowl, but chuckled a he saw Mulder crouched and hidden behind the door frame gesturing for him to come over.

"Tommy ain't got no more of them special brownies!" Irving chuckled as he slowly made his way towards Mulder.

"That's not what I need" Mulder told his partner in crime.

Okay so maybe Mulder still enjoyed getting into trouble and winding the nurses up, but he had to do something to take his mind off Scully.

"Ooohhh right, Dana's back" Irving nodded, a cheeky grin working its way to his gummy mouth. "You want one of our little blue buddies!" He waggled his eyebrows as he pulled a fistful of little blue Viagra pills from his corduroy trousers.

"What? No! I need you to distract Big Ass Bertha whilst I steal her car keys!"

"Aw man! You know Big Ass has it in for me after she found me and Gladys between the sheets!"

"Please?" Mulder pleaded. "You know I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate!"

"Fine!" Irving huffed, knowing how much being with a lucid Scully meant to his best friend. "But you owe me big time!"

"I know, I know" Mulder smiled, clapping the man on his back before walking off in the direction of the staff room. "On second thoughts" Mulder spoke as he turned back around. "I'll take one, just in case" he grinned like a horny teenager a he plucked two little blue pills from Irving.

**xxxxxxxxxxxx**

Mulder waited for the signal nervously. Irving was a touch on the dramatic side and he ha no idea what the man was going to pull. He hoped though, that they'd get away with it and he could take Scully away from this old person prison. He could more or less come and go as he pleased, so long a he stuck to the curfew, but because of Scully's illness you had to put in a request and she had to be chaperoned. That was not going to happen today. Oh no. Mulder was going to break her out of here.

He heard Irving yell 'apples' which had always been their signal and Mulder snuck into the staff room. He could hear commotion just down the hall and hoped Irving was doing a good job. He easily found Bertha's handbag and quickly stole her car keys before making as hasty an exit as an 80 year old man could. As he made his way out of the room, he rolled his eyes as he saw Irving's feet sticking out around the corner. He made his way back toward the communal area, where Irving was currently rolling and riving on the floor, faking a mixture of a stroke, fit of some sort and heart attack.

Jesus, Mulder thought. Why could the man just go on about his grand kids like most people?!

There was a large crowd around a flailing Irving, who the second spies Mulder, sat up with a shit eating grin on his face.

"Well that was weird. I'm all better now"

Irving spoke before Big Ass Bertha saw red.

"You've got a 20 second head start!" She snarled, giving the elderly man a chance to stand up and scramble before she chased him.

"Good luck, my friend" Irving spoke as he hobbled past Mulder, Big Ass quickly on his heals.

Once Irving had cleared the hallway, Mulder took off in the opposite direction. Bertha's car wasn't hard to find and Mulder was quickly inside.

As instructed, Scully was waiting out front for him.

"Hop in Scullbags" Mulder smirked, pulling to a stop beside her.

"Oh Mulder!" Scully groaned. "You didn't!"

"Guilty" Mulder leaned across and opened the door for Scully. "Irving is going to get hell off Big Ass for eternity for this, so you had ether be quick!"

Scully rolled her eyes as she sat in the car. Honestly, why was she surprised that Mulder was getting himself into trouble? He had never liked authority. Him and Irving had been a match made in hell, the two of them jelling instantly.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Scully asked curiously as Mulder sped away from the home.

"That's for me to know and you to find out" Mulder grinned cheekily once again.


End file.
